How about that Canadian inflation, eh?:
Canadian inflation picked up more than analysts expected in February to the fastest in more than three years as signs point to price pressures continuing to build.
Consumer prices accelerated to an annual pace of 2.2 percent in February, the most since 2014, from 1.7 percent a month earlier. Economists had anticipated a 1.9 percent increase. Core prices — which exclude more volatile items like energy and are considered a gauge of inflation pressures — inched higher for a fifth month to 2.03 percent, which is the fastest since 2012.
The budding inflation could add pressure on the Bank of Canada — which has kept the expansion going with low interest rates — to keep hiking borrowing costs to more normal levels.
All this is happening during renewed NAFTA huffing and puffing:
U.S. President Donald Trump has put new pressure on Nafta negotiations with an order saying he’ll impose steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico on May 1 if he’s not satisfied with talks.
Trump’s presidential proclamation Thursday sets tariffs for some countries as of Friday while excluding others such as Canada and Mexico. The document specifies for the first time when those exclusions will run out, adding to pressure for a deal to be reached on the North American Free Trade Agreement around the same time.
A White House statement said Trump will decide by May 1 “whether to continue to exempt these countries from tariffs, based on the status of discussions.” Mexico has said it needs a deal by the end of April, or that talks might as well stretch past the country’s summer election, and then U.S. midterm elections this fall.
All this Trumpism is having an effect:
Spring has sprung — just not in U.S. stocks, where a harrowing week has walloped traders with echoes of February’s correction.
In the past five years, there have been only two other stretches with losses of this magnitude. The S&P 500 Index is down 6 percent. And the picture looks just as bad for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which sank to a four-month low by the Friday close. Both indexes suffered their steepest weekly drop in more than two years.
Equities are now teetering near — and for blue chips, below — levels seen at the worst point in February’s volatility-fueled meltdown. At the epicenter this time is U.S. President Donald Trump, with his China tariffs driving Boeing Co. down more than 5 percent in a single session on Thursday and losses rippling across industries from technology to banks.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
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| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.6429 % | 3,003.7 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.6429 % | 5,511.6 |
| Floater | 3.32 % | 3.48 % | 100,759 | 18.58 | 4 | -0.6429 % | 3,176.4 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0078 % | 3,167.6 |
| SplitShare | 4.69 % | 4.15 % | 57,540 | 3.26 | 5 | 0.0078 % | 3,782.8 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0078 % | 2,951.5 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.63 % | 2.45 % | 79,181 | 0.08 | 11 | -0.0611 % | 2,837.4 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.37 % | 5.48 % | 82,372 | 14.60 | 23 | -0.0934 % | 2,926.5 |
| FixedReset | 4.30 % | 4.65 % | 177,170 | 5.88 | 104 | -0.2139 % | 2,502.4 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.20 % | 5.88 % | 90,903 | 5.71 | 28 | -0.0714 % | 2,904.5 |
| FloatingReset | 2.91 % | 3.04 % | 34,985 | 3.64 | 10 | -0.1814 % | 2,754.6 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| MFC.PR.G | FixedReset | -1.48 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.96 Bid-YTW : 5.08 % |
| TD.PF.B | FixedReset | -1.47 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 22.44 Evaluated at bid price : 22.86 Bid-YTW : 4.65 % |
| SLF.PR.G | FixedReset | -1.43 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 19.28 Bid-YTW : 7.31 % |
| TRP.PR.C | FixedReset | -1.40 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 17.60 Evaluated at bid price : 17.60 Bid-YTW : 4.78 % |
| MFC.PR.M | FixedReset | -1.36 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.15 Bid-YTW : 5.57 % |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | -1.19 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 20.75 Evaluated at bid price : 20.75 Bid-YTW : 2.93 % |
| PWF.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | -1.08 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 23.53 Evaluated at bid price : 23.80 Bid-YTW : 5.59 % |
| PWF.PR.T | FixedReset | -1.04 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 23.20 Evaluated at bid price : 23.80 Bid-YTW : 4.59 % |
| IAG.PR.G | FixedReset | -1.02 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.31 Bid-YTW : 5.36 % |
| TRP.PR.B | FixedReset | -1.01 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 16.65 Evaluated at bid price : 16.65 Bid-YTW : 4.71 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| MFC.PR.B | Deemed-Retractible | 76,624 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.54 Bid-YTW : 7.30 % |
| MFC.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | 67,225 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 20.83 Bid-YTW : 7.73 % |
| BAM.PR.R | FixedReset | 47,178 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 20.07 Evaluated at bid price : 20.07 Bid-YTW : 5.07 % |
| CM.PR.R | FixedReset | 46,556 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2022-07-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.16 Bid-YTW : 4.43 % |
| TD.PF.J | FixedReset | 40,820 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 23.18 Evaluated at bid price : 25.09 Bid-YTW : 4.58 % |
| BAM.PF.F | FixedReset | 34,700 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-03-23 Maturity Price : 23.65 Evaluated at bid price : 24.05 Bid-YTW : 5.00 % |
| There were 11 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| MFC.PR.G | FixedReset | Quote: 23.96 – 24.80 Spot Rate : 0.8400 Average : 0.4933 YTW SCENARIO |
| MFC.PR.N | FixedReset | Quote: 22.97 – 23.70 Spot Rate : 0.7300 Average : 0.4187 YTW SCENARIO |
| TRP.PR.F | FloatingReset | Quote: 20.22 – 20.84 Spot Rate : 0.6200 Average : 0.3690 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | Quote: 20.75 – 21.34 Spot Rate : 0.5900 Average : 0.3883 YTW SCENARIO |
| W.PR.H | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 24.75 – 25.22 Spot Rate : 0.4700 Average : 0.2810 YTW SCENARIO |
| RY.PR.H | FixedReset | Quote: 23.35 – 23.77 Spot Rate : 0.4200 Average : 0.2457 YTW SCENARIO |